"Thirteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 10 states have been deemed ready to join the European Union. The historic move would enlarge the EU to 25 nations by 2004", report CNN and the BBC.

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus -- have been deemed ready to compete inside the EU's single market from 2004 following often painful economic and social reforms.

Bulgaria and Romania have been given a date of 2007, but Turkey has been left out until the country establishes a better human rights record...

Meanwhile, the editors don't think this is important news (after all, it isn't for geeks) ( * 2002-10-09 18:15:48 EU to grow to 25 member countries in 2004 (articles) (rejected)), but tend to think that we care for what's in this guy's toolbox or if some senator gets sued for $80. You may also notice that/. doesn't even have a EU section yet. Pathetic.

....and I just was getting used to 15. What made me pissed too is that I never got to see all the cute Finnish and Swedisch chicks at the European School where I went. I believe they joined the year after I graduated.
Some of the countries in the list are not ready to be taken into the European Union, I think. Let's just hope that the EU burocracy chooses wisely.

Most countries listed aren't ready yet to become part of the EU, IMHO. But we shall see. I am no PhD in Economy so I really can't tell better. Perhaps they have arguments in favor (it was said on the news that one of the Balkans country, but I forgot which one, is better prepared now than Portugal was then)...

Dear Rob,
after talking with some friends (like "forged" and others) on their Journal on Slashdot, we would like to have a "European" section on Slashdot. Still news for nerds, but this time stuff that matters for the European Community.

Some reasons? First, that people will stop complaining that Slashdot is too US-centric.

Second, so that news about EU will be "confined" into that section and people that do not care at all about the rest of the world ("world?") could choose not to browse it.

Third, so that news about EU will be "confined" into that section and people can have a sort of "repository" for such news in a separate section (a-la-"your rights online").

What do you think? Should I submit this question to "ask slashdot"? Should I submit that as a poll? (but then, who would want a CowboyNeal section..?

so. rob replied, and we exchanged a couple of e-mails. It seems that slashdot has no *economic* interest in opening a pure-EU section because their salesforce doesn't cover Europe. He's referring to banner ads... for what I understand, they don't have any ad to be sold in Europe. I think.Same thing for japan, africa, and so on - they seem to have had a guy in the UK, one in Japan, one in Australia, et cetera..

Now I asked him if opening just a 'section', like 'your rights online', would cost much. Let's see.